The Boston Celtics were over matched and literally out-manned by the Dallas Mavericks in an 89-73 loss. Dirk Nowitzki became the NBA’s 20th all time leading scorer with his 26 point and 16 rebound obliteration of the Celtics defense.

Losing to the defending World Champions is nothing to be ashamed of especially without two starters. Rajon Rondo (suspension) and Kevin Garnett (injured) were both missing. Brandon Bass is still nursing a knee injury while Jermaine O’neal (wrist) and Chris Wilcox (groin) both left the game with injuries that prevented their return.

In essence this was a throw away game from the beginning but unfortunately a team like Boston doesn’t have room for those.

The Celtics have now lost 6 of their last 7 and 4 straight. Besides losing games the team seems to have lost their direction, their moxy, and lack the continuity of the teams from the recent past.

Frustration and countless injuries continue to plague the proud franchise making it difficult to gauge the true future of the organization this season.

Is it to win enough games to go get in the playoffs for one final miracle run? Anything lower than a 6th seed and Boston would be charged with beating both Chicago and Miami in order to make it to the finals.

A herculean task to say the least.

Is it time to disband this current crop? A topic that was over analyzed when the team started a miserable 5-9.

Danny Ainge is not likely to be overwhelmed with any offer he receives so this team should finish this season mostly intact at least on paper if not mindset.

Boston is not as bad as their 5-9 start, not as good as the stretch that saw them win 9 of 10, and not as terrible as the current streak they are in.

But their record is about where it should be and that is hovering around 500.

Given all of the injuries and the amount of new pieces it is hard to expect more from this group. The problem has been the streakiness and living in the land of consistent inconsistency.

Better days are sure to come once players return from their aliments followed by worse days followed by…well you get the picture.